Further to last week's Society Alert report: "Investors Increasingly Vote Against Directors Lacking Gender-Diverse Boards," the New York State Retirement Fund (3rd largest US public pension fund) became the latest in an expanding group of institutional investors to announce plans to vote against directors on gender non-diverse boards.
According to New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli's release, the Fund intends to vote against all directors at companies with no women on their boards, and will vote against Nom/Gov Committee members on boards with just one woman. It reportedly recently withdrew shareholder proposals at four companies - Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Leucadia National, Packaging Corp. of America and PulteGroup - upon their commitment to consider gender and racial diversity in the new director recruitment process.
The Fund - which purportedly holds shares in more than 400 public companies with no women on their boards, and more than 700 companies with just one woman on their board - joins BlackRock, Mass. PRIM, State Street, CalSTRS, the Rhode Island State Pension Fund and others that have announced plans to actively register their discontent with the dearth of board diversity at the proxy voting booth.
Access numerous additional resources on our Board Diversity and Institutional Investors topical pages.